King of Gamers
by Dondon Pikachu


Author's Note: I posted this on the official Code Lyoko forums ) and wanted to bring it to a larger audience. Sorry if I don't have some of my Lyoko facts straight; I haven't seen some of the earlier episodes. That aside, enjoy my fanfic and please R&R!  
  
The Xanadu Project aimed to blur the line between reality and online gaming. Headed by gaming mogul Gregorio Harris, a large team of technicians worked for years to create his vision of this game. Truthfully, the Xanadu Project couldn't be merely considered a "game"; it could be best described as a digital realm. It lived like the Earth itself, with changing seasons, flowing oceans and living ecosystems. To access the world of Xanadu, players must be "virtualized" into replicas of themselves. In other words, you did not control a character like in most games; you experienced it firsthand. "Xanadu: A Game as Big as the Internet Itself" was the tag line that Gregorio used to describe his brainchild. While to participate in the game you needed special digitalizing software, spectators could view the action as simple as surfing to a web page. They could also communicate with players via the internet, also.  
Xanadu was built to be a RPG where the digitalized players would face off against an evil monarch called X.A.N.A. and his many armies of robots. The players would go into hand-to-hand combat against X.A.N.A.'s armies using special weapons, each one unique from all the other players'. Of course, the players weren't in any "real" danger; when they are "killed" in the game, they simply return back to reality.  
  
Gregorio wanted to reveal Xanadu to the public as soon as possible. He considered this his "gift to the gaming world", since he believed that all gamers wished to truthfully experience a video game, and now, with Xanadu, that dream could become a reality. As soon as the game was fully playable, Gregorio unveiled his creation to a small group of test players. His wife, Cheryl, who worked alongside him on the Xanadu Project, advised him not to do this so soon because the game hadn't been completely safety tested yet. Gregorio ignored her and went on with his plans.  
  
On the day of Xanadu's first test run, the whole production team gathered eagerly around computers to watch their program come to life. The test group was successfully transported to a forest sector of Xanadu where they would come across X.A.N.A.'s army for the first time. A cluster of "crab" robots faced off against the team. Everything was going perfectly. The team was about the finish off the robot army, but in a sudden flash of light, they all disappeared.  
Some members of the Xanadu programming team rushed down to the digitalization chambers where the team's bodies stayed during gameplay. None of them could breathe or had a pulse. All that was left of them were some lifeless bodies.  
  
The developer automatically cut funding to the project, not taking any more chances. Cheryl was furious with her husband for not listening to her precautions.  
  
"All because of your lame judgment, three innocent people are now dead!" she raged.  
"That...that wasn't supposed to happen!" Gregorio shouted in defense. "The program was just fine...how something could go wrong is completely beyond me!"  
"Well, your so-called 'gift to the gaming world' is now a curse!"  
Cheryl slowly started to cry. "And to think...I helped and even married a murderer..."  
"I AM NOT A MURDERER!!!" Gregorio flared.  
"Well, your STUPIDITY is the same amount of a crime!!!"  
Being a highly skilled programmer, Gregorio hated nothing more than being considered stupid. "I dare you to say that again..." he sternly said to his wife.  
"Fine! Your blatantly CARELESS STUPIDITY..."  
Cheryl didn't say another word, and never could, since she was killed by a gunshot from her husband.  
  
Gregorio hid the evidence of his wife's murder and continued to work on the Xanadu Project on his own. While rearranging some of its files, he stumbled upon a thought, 'If things from the real world can go into Xanadu, can some of Xanadu come out? Hmm..."  
  
Gregorio's daughter, Aelita, was just coming home from boarding school on break after all this mess. She questioned where her mother was and all her father would say that is she off working on another project. Aelita observed her father during the next few days and realized he never left the computer, not even to sleep. He was too wrapped up in his work to even listen to her. He seemed to be planning something...  
  
Ms. Yamagata, a head programmer on the Xanadu project, stumbled upon the game page and noticed it was still functioning.  
"Why is this still here...?"  
A male voice inside her computer yelled, "Yamagata! How did you find this?"  
Suddenly, her home's electricity went off and she noticed a bizarre black thing flowing out of an electrical outlet.  
"Well, we can't have you blowing my secret, can we?" that same voice said.  
The black thing formed into a hand and was about to grab Ms. Yamagata, when electricity came back and the hand disappeared.  
"Thank God...a glitch..." she sighed in relief.  
  
Ms. Yamagata knew what was going on, but she really didn't want to believe it. She called the Harris residence, hoping to talk to Gregorio, but the only one who answered the phone was Aelita.  
"You must stop your father immediately...He's using the Xanadu program to attack people!"  
At first, Aelita found this ridiculous, but knew Ms. Yamagata wasn't one to make jokes.  
"How can this be?" she said in shock. "How can Xanadu have that power?"  
Gregorio heard her talking down the hall and came to strangle his daughter so she couldn't speak.  
"You are NOT telling this to anyone, got it?" he raged.  
"Why are you doing this?" Aelita said weakly. "You are not the father I once knew!"  
"Why?" he answered, "Because I can! I have reached my dream of making a video game into reality! I can attack people from anywhere, anyplace! I have all the powers of X.A.N.A.! No, I AM X.A.N.A.!"  
"You have gone mad!" Aelita struggled to say. "I cannot let you do this!"  
"Well, I CANNOT let you stop me!"  
Gregorio then snatched Aelita down to his lab, where some virtualization chambers were located. He strapped her in and began the scanning process. She begged and pleaded for him to stop, but her father had no mercy.  
  
Aelita later woke in a deep forest near a lake. She looked at her reflection in the water in amazement. She wore completely different clothes than before and her ears became rather elf-like.  
"I...I must be in my father's game...Xanadu!"  
  
"Aelita! I have been waiting for you! I am afraid you are the only one who can stop your father!" It was Ms. Yamagata, talking to Aelita from a computer screen.  
"Me? But I don't know what to do!" Aelita cried. "What can I do now....?"  
"You can do very much," said Ms. Yamagata. "I knew when I developed this game that something was bound to go wrong. So I developed a cheat code to stop some of X.A.N.A.'s army."  
"You did?" Aelita said with a glimmer of hope.  
"Yes. See that control tower over there, the big structure that looks like a cigarette?"  
Aelita got up and turned around. "Yes. I do see it."  
"When in danger, walk into the tower and there you will find a touch screen. Put your hand on it and then it will ask for a code. That code is my first name: Lyoko."  
"Lyoko. Code Lyoko." Aelita said to herself.  
"You must never forget it. You have a great responsibility now, Aelita, but I trust you to save Xanadu."  
"X.A.N.A....Xanadu...I don't want hear those names ever again." Aelita said. "The only name that gives me hope is Lyoko. To retain hope, I shall call this world Lyoko." 


End file.
